​British aid money funding corruption overseas – report

The UK government is not doing enough to tackle “petty corruption” in countries that receive British aid, a report warned.

The report was published
on Friday by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI). It
found that while the Department for International Development
(DFID), which handles most UK aid overseas, is trying to tackle
corruption, it had failed to develop “an approach equal to
the challenge, nor has it focused its efforts sufficiently on the
poor.”

Therefore, the watchdog gave the DFID a rating of Amber-Red,
which means it is performing relatively poorly and significant
improvements must be made.

“The UK should take an ambitious stance with respect to
tackling corruption around the world as experienced by the
poor,” lead commissioner Mark Foster said.

“We saw very little evidence that the work DFID is doing to
combat corruption is successfully addressing the impact of
corruption as experienced by the poor.

“Indeed, there is little indication that DFID has sought to
address the forms of corruption that most directly affect the
poor: so called ‘petty’ corruption,” Foster added.

One development project in Nepal encouraged people “to pay
bribes to government officials or to forge documentation in order
to receive funding” for projects, the report found. It also
revealed that police stations in Nigeria linked to British aid
were demanding bribes.

“We heard, particularly in Nigeria, of women trying to stand
for local elections and being thwarted in doing so by corrupt
male officials,” the report says.

“Bribery diminishes the effectiveness of law enforcement,
particularly where punishment of crimes relies on evidence from
the victim. This can affect women badly, in cases of trafficking
and rape in particular.”

Foreign aid increased by 28 percent last year, meaning the UK hit
its target of spending 0.7 percent of its GDP on overseas
development – more than £12 billion pounds a year.

This means Britain has the second most generous aid budget in the
world, after the United States.

“We have anti-corruption and counter-fraud plans for each
country that we give bilateral aid to,” a DFID spokeswoman
said.

“While these plans are tailored to the individual needs of
each country, they are based on a common principle that tackles
the root causes of corruption by building strong institutions and
requiring good governance.”

In July this year, campaigners accused the DFID and USAid, the
American aid agency, of ignoring evidence of human rights abuses
allegedly linked to their support for a multibillion-dollar
social services program in Ethiopia. Campaigners claimed the
British government had given more than £1billion in aid to
Ethiopia while its security forces tortured, killed and raped.